The old Conrail Track 1, now owned by Reading & Northern or whatever other name it goes by, has certainly seen a renaissance. Aside from the lack of welded rail, it looks every bit the equal of Track 2 (the NS owned track occupied by the train, and Conrail's only "main" track for all intents and purposes). Under Conrail ownership, Track 1 can thank the more friendly tax policies of the State of Pennsylvania for its continued existence; had this section of the line been in New York or New Jersey, it would have been ripped up long ago, since it would have been heavily taxed as an "improvement." In Conrail days, before being sold to the short line (and it being in more a "state of rot" than "state of repair"), there used to be some "interesting" rules regarding operation on Track 1 through this area based on "excessive rocking of cars," requiring trains to operate in a fairly narrow (and always slow) range of speeds, with reduction to an extremely pedestrian (almost literally) pace should the train be rocking too much in the higher range of speeds. Good to see it looking so good!
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